Thursday, May 1, 2014

Greek tragedy and CU medusa

In Greek mythology Medusa
("guardian, protectress")was a monster, a Gorgon, generally described
as having the face of a hideous human female with living venomous snakes
in place of hair. Gazing directly into her eyes would turn onlookers to
stone. Most sources describe her as the daughter of Phorcys and Ceto,
though the author Hyginus (Fabulae, 151) interposes a generation and gives Medusa another chthonic pair as parents.
Medusa was beheaded by the hero Perseus, who thereafter used her head
as a weapon until he gave it to the goddess Athena to place on her
shield. In classical antiquity the image of the head of Medusa appeared
in the evil-averting device known as the Gorgoneion.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medusa